48 Iranians freed by Syrian rebels 'in exchange for 2,000 prisoners'

Syrian rebels have freed 48 Iranians they had been holding for months in a swap for 2,130 prisoners detained by the Assad regime, according to a rebel spokesman and Iranian state television.

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Iranian men who had been held hostage arrive at a hotel in Damascus after being freedPhoto: Louai Beshara/AFP

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The rebels released a video on August 5 showing the captives and Iranian military identification cards taken from them

3:54PM GMT 09 Jan 2013

Separately Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's peace envoy, told the BBC that 40 years of Assad family rule is "too long", the international mediator for Syria said in an interview aired on Wednesday, the closest he has come to calling directly for President Bashar al-Assad to leave power.

"In Syria, in particular, I think that what people are saying is that a family ruling for 40 years is a little bit too long. So the change has to be real. It has to be real, and I think that President Assad could take the lead in responding to the aspiration of his people rather than resisting it," Mr Brahimi said in an interview with the BBC.

Serkan Nergis, a spokesman for the Turkish charity the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), said the exchange was the result of "months of civil diplomacy carried out by our organisation".

The regime's prisoners exchanged for the Iranians were of several nationalities, including Turks, he said.

A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Ahmed al-Khatib, confirmed the deal, telling the AFP news agency it was worked out through Turkish and Qatari mediation with Iran lobbying ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.